Page 7 - MarketTimesDecember2018
P. 7

FEATURE • MOSELEY
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   Peter Viggers sells the wine and gin from Buzzard’s Valley, a vineyard between Tamworth and Sutton Coldfield
Billy Augur sells fruit and nuts from his farm in Shropshire
 of the first traders.
“I arrived on the third market they held,”
and traders,” he added.
The range, quality and variety of the meat
harvested in 2005 and the company now produces rosé, white and sparkling wines. The range of gins was added after some of the wine became oxidised and Leon invested in a still to turn it into gin.
John said. “I heard about the market from the honey man and in those early days it was very much a market where local farmers and producers sold their products.”
and vegetables, not to mention the cakes, chocolates, drinks and fine food, make Moseley a magnet for locals and foodies from far and wide.
As well as providing a market place for local farmers, the market has also been a launch pad for many a local foodie business.
It remains a farmers’ market, with the vast majority of traders local people who rear or grow their products or source their ingredients from the surrounding area.
Moseley farmers’ market boasts a trader selling local made wine and gin, and there’s even a trader selling walnuts, apples and cobb nuts from his fruit farm at Hopton Wafers in Shropshire.
Among the fledgling businesses are Pip’s Hot Sauces, Kneal’s Chocolates and The Good Gut Hut, all inspiring and successful business stories which have benefited from trading on Moseley’s monthly market.
But Izzy said that these days they allow a section at either end of the market for products such as fresh fish, coffee, and olive oil. These are high quality traders with fine food and drink which can’t be caught or grown within a 50-mile radius, but whose presence the volunteers on the CIC (Community Interest Company) deem beneficial to the local community.
“The walnuts and apples are freshly picked and the cobb nuts were harvested last month,” said fruit farmer Billy Auger.
Pip Bradley started making her own hot sauces after she sat down to enjoy a pizza at her favourite pub, only to be told they had no chilli sauce.
John said the market had grown over the years but retained the friendly, community feel which makes it such a pleasure to trade there.
Peter Viggers, who sells wine and gin made at Buzzard’s Valley in between Tamworth and Sutton Coldfield, said Moseley is his best market and also the ideal shop window to promote Buzzard’s Valley.
“I started making my own at home and giving bottles of it away as presents,” Pip said. One day she gave a bottle to the pub landlord and he came back to her with an order for 120 bottles.
“We do really well on this market,” John said. “Since the BSE crisis we ensure our animals only feed on what grows on our farm. That’s what the people who shop here want and it’s what they get from me and the other farmers
“The business is run by my wife’s family,” Peter said. “They are farmers and started with potatoes, switched to leeks, and then began growing and selling flowers.”
“At that point I realised I had a potential business,” said Pip, who gave up her job as a community engagement officer with the Wildlife Trust to start Pip’s Hot Sauces.
The flowers provided enough profit for Peter’s brother-in-law Leon Jones to invest in vines and to create fishing ponds on the farm.
The first crop of wine-producing grapes was
That was four years ago and she has won
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